DARE TO CLIMB

for [Music] I never got in my first airplane till I was 38 years old oh [Music] [Music] I was really getting the feeling I was personally been stamed you know just being a successful businessman I I felt I hand reach my personal limitations and uh there was a busy contractor and a friend of mine said say you have to get a hobby and after about a month my friend talked me into going up for a ride in his airplane we did have a nice ride and this is where I really saw a new world unfolding to me we went back and landed that night I called my insurance agent he said what are you doing Hughes I'm going to buy an airplane and he said well why not by mine well this was the next day now after my first ride we went up in that airplane I came down on the ground and rode him a check and bought an airplane the next day I walked up to a flight school on Orange County Airport sanana California and said uh I bought an airplane I want to learn how to fly uh what to do to learn how to fly my airplane and they looked at me like they thought I was from the funny farm and after a few minutes convinced him hey I was was serious and so they assigned an instructor to me and we spent our first hour of instruction sitting in that airplane with the instructor saying this is an Artificial Horizon what's that and a DG Compass a clock and the entire first hour of instruction was that because was totally unfamiliar and we started flying on a daily basis I was almost obsessed with this idea of flying and matter of fact we flew every day I wanted to take three hours instruction a day the flight school knew the learning curve and said no one hour day that's [Music] all I went right on in want to learn more about the thing I like so well the aviation and just about that time my friend came back and said uh let's go see an air show and we did go to this Air Show and for my first time ever I saw air btics well I knew right then I had to learn aerobatics so I started flying aerobatics I learned to do the basic rows loops and all of that and thought gosh I love it and thought well it would be a neat thing to do two or three air shows a year I thought okay I have to have the airplane to do this with and through the research I found a steeran was most commonly used throughout at least the recent years understand the the steeran basically was not really an aerobatic airplane it was used as a primary trainer in World War II and did the basic Loop and roll and that's all so I wanted to build this airplane into one of the best aerobatic airplanes are air show airplanes uh that existed I had a choice of engines to put on on the airplane when in keeping with basically my personality if you're going to do it do it right or forget it I put the largest engine that was uh mechanically and physically possible to put in the airplane which is a 1340 Pratt Whitney which at that time turned 600 horsepower so all of a sudden I had the beginning of a super steeran the plane is a product of 8 years of development by myself all the systems it really brings it up to date where it is today the super steeran I learned what I had designed as I thought would be an audio Air Show sequence still every morning in this airplane up early in the morning out flying into the Construction office back in the afternoon flying again day after day so now i' finally learned to do aerobatics pretty good [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I actually learned arabati through my own efforts and out of the book and uh trial and error so to speak this took uh a lot of time too as a matter of fact it changed an entire lifestyle but I've found also in life that part of knowing what you want is what you have to give up to get it and I was determined I was going to be an aerobatic pilot I was determined I was going to fly my four or five air shows so we went and did an air Air Show hey it was great it worked out good we had had lots of planning and the air show worked fine did another Air Show after the third air show the phone started ringing rather than doing my four or five air shows i' plann to do matter of fact i' done 48 performances at the end of the first year well this is what really started my career in fly my advocation suddenly was turning into a real Main Street vocation for me here and the second year of course I did over 90 and it's every year I do over [Music] 100 learning to fly upside down and do loops you start uh you enter into a to to different environment of the body I think the the strangest feeling was the sensation of G loads example I weigh 170 lb I'm one G if I have two G's I weigh 340 lbs so getting the body used to all this it's quite an unusual experience and I remember it hurt a little and after a while though this starts going away the body adapts to its environment and example now I pull in my sequences the advanced sequences up to seven positive and five negative G's and I don't feel either one a negative G is the reverse what it's doing is literally trying to tear you out of the airplane and this is where you have all the double belts and to scare you in the airplane and also the blood is rushing out of the lower parts of your bodies particularly the extremities into your head and it's very painful it took about 5 years of doing air shows before all of a sudden one day I didn't feel the pain of of the negative G's in an outside Loop all of a sudden it was gone the fun and I I think the feeling of achievement that I got out of it personally was worth all of this it was worth all all of the giving up of the other Recreation it was worth the flying mornings afternoons weekends and working late at night in the hanger on the airplane to develop it after I learned to do arabaticum [Music] initially I was pretty busy learning to fly the airplane and my original wing walker was ex trapes artist and he was thinking of all the tricks that could be done as I progressed through the years and now I'm with my fourth wing walker and obviously I'm the trainer of wing Walkers now and the hours in Donna's case that was spent training her were numerous I would say it would run into hundreds of hours in training which spended a two-month period before Donna ever went flying to perform the wing walking act as seen today on the wing it was one solid month of training in the hanger okay Donna let's um set the bag down and the wing walking right the qualities I look for in a wing walker are rather definite I have to be concerned about their size because of the obvious mass and the aerodynamic negatives it will impose you'll find on the aircraft and his flying characteristics end of the year you've turned into past that point I look for a person most favorably a type person who is of a gymnastic background I find the gymnasts are the best because they have already gone through the era of self-discipline concentration and the elimination of the basic human element of fear but I find the gymies work best because they do have the power of concentration and the self discipline is definitely required in this act because the wing walker is trained to move out of that airplane and about it while in flight and doing different various acrobatics on the wing while the while the airplane is actually going 85 90 mph through the air 10,000 lbs of tensil stress okay now it's very important that I check all your nuts and boats and you check all mine and then we know the total rack secured at an air show we're ready to go fly but right now let's get down and we'll start talking you through some of the wing walking tricks okay now on the kickout for the horizontal handstand I want you to hold on to the top come right back down to the windshield remember the wind's blowing now just move right down to the windshield yeah just there you are always holding tightly what we're going to do is have you kick out and do a horizontal handstand okay bring the other foot on down there you are get your other hand tightly in there now what I want you to do is to kick out horizontally and I'm going to catch you don't worry about it I'll catch you okay I hope okay kick straight up okay ready go there there now the wind's going to be helping you this going to be easier to do in the air than it is on the ground if you start oscillating sort of do a slight scissors with your legs no the other way there you are right there and then when the oscillation stops I want you to keep good farm and then here you go back down miss the windshield right down okay now let's show you how to get into the headstand okay now what you have to do is turn around 180° so just reverse your feet remember the wind is blowing there you are the wind is blowing against you one foot over there now come up and sit right on these bring your right leg up first and just wedge you right in remember the wind is blowing now your other leg all right now I'm going to assimilate wind for you okay the wind is blowing now you have to let yourself all the way down now remember that wind's going to ver reverse when you pass a har hour be ready wind's going to blow this way okay now strike a little pose forse good good form okay coming back up the same thing the wind's pressing on the front pull up slowly now don't let the wind slam you against the rack okay there you are good now just move all the way back down to the rack and stand up in the rack again wind is blowing try to imagine all the time the wind is blowing like he okay 80 85 miles hour is what's going to be growing the type thing that I do performing air shows is uh often referred to as stunt flying it actually isn't at all uh stunts are things like uh jumping the Snake River attempting to do something this flying is well planned it is practiced and Polished to the science of safety we have a tradition we go through in this we always give a handshake before we take all for the performance it's like have a good show [Music] the act as I bring it out every year has had many many hours of practice in rehearsal just as a Stage production it is in all respects a Stage production performed in the air and there's lots of planning lots of research uh timing a lot of rehearsal in it when flying the wing walking act the total responsibility is on the pilot I fly higher than I do in the normal act not that I couldn't dust the trees off but I have a responsibility there of another life in my hands now we're coming in for an 8-point roll we need 150 mph coming down to about 50 ft I have 150 mph level off coming up on crowd Center here we go 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 [Music] 8 my engineering background has been most helpful a lot of this haven't gone into it the way I did with the absence of help from knowledgeable people in the film I'm going in put me in the position of working on Theory and most of the things I've done has been with a lot of thought and a lot of theory almost all of the things that I've decided yes this will work in fact have worked because there was so much thought and planning behind it before attempting [Music] if I tell you I don't have a few anxieties before performance I would be lying to you I do but once I'm in the airplane I'm in my own element one of which I'm in total control of it and I know this one thing you have to remember is to never be afraid of what you're doing because automatically that puts you behind the curve believe in yourself have confidence in yourself apply yourself if you are frightened in any situation and Afraid there is a restriction again subconsciously that does not allow you to function to your full capability always have a healthy respect for what you're doing and recognize your limitations and the limitations of what you're involved with that's where it all begins you must believe in yourself after I've flown a performance I know whether I did a good performance or not and that I have come down and I have performed well motivates me to move on forward I have to know I'm making progress this gives me the incentive to continue sometimes I have hit what is called a mental stale meate and there's a reason behind it so I seek out that reason and find out what it is and eliminate it and then continue to move [Music] forward I believe anyone can do anything with their life or their profession that they want to that there's no limitations the only limitation a person has is within himself the key to it all is to decide what you want to do and to study it and to be determined within yourself and out of this you can draw all energies you need to press forward and to move as far in whatever that direction is you want to it's up to the the individual determine sit down determine where do I want to go with my life my profession then you can sort of set a pattern you want to follow uh to improve your environment and your existence and life and those who surround you and I think once you can ever look far enough into the future to say okay where am I going to be 10 15 years from now or 20 or whenever then then I think you can start formulating a pattern and a direction of where you want to go one thing that many people say to me is uh oh that's impossible uh never take that position the position I always take in this there's nothing impossible The Impossible just takes a little bit longer I see a most def [Music] similarity between being successful in business and in flying particularly the type fly I'm doing it's really setting out a a game plan so to speak a lot of planning a lot of of thought input to what you're going to be doing whether it's in the business world are are inlying a lot of professionalism a lot of dedication a very definite parallel I've never gotten tired of flying seems like I I can't get enough in anything anyone does and excels at it they have to enjoy it in whatever I've done the construction business the fly you have to sort of get yourself in the attitude of loving what you're doing and to have in a sense a romance with this and this allows you to function to your highest level I have a real romance with flying about the only thing it can't replace is my wife [Music]